Talk of the Towns 1/8/20: Knitting as Craft, Knitting as Life Force

Producer/Host: Ron Beard Studio Engineer: Amy Browne Key Discussion Points: What led each guest to knitting and how does it factor into their lives now? As members of a weekly knitting group at the Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor, what are the benefits you and other members see. What community projects have been successful? What do we know about the history of knitting, both for functional clothing and as a craft? What periods in history brought knitting to the forefront? What led to the founding Knit Fit at the Mount Desert Island YMCA (participants knit while walking for light exercise) ? How did Dayana Knits come to be as a facebook page and blog… what is the audience and response? What was the experience of traveling to the Shetland Island with a focus on the wool and knitting community there? How would someone wanting to learn knitting get started… what are the basics? Where can a beginner get support… on their own and in groups? What are your favorite on-line resources? Guests: Jill Goldthwait, former State Senator Michelle McCann, originator of Knit Fit, MDI YMCA Dayana Krawchuk, blogger Dayana Knits Jen Crandall, MDI High School About the host: Ron Beard is producer and host of Talk of the Towns, which first aired on WERU in 1993 as part of his community building work as an Extension professor with University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Sea Grant. He took all the journalism courses he could fit in while an undergraduate student in wildlife management and served as an intern with Maine Public Television nightly newscast in the early 1970s. Ron is an adjunct faculty member at College of the Atlantic, teaching courses on community development. Ron served on the Bar Harbor Town Council for six years and is currently board chair for the Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor, where he has lived since 1975. Look for him on the Allagash River in June, and whenever he can get away, in the highlands of Scotland where he was fortunate to spend two sabbaticals.